Chapter 112: Condensing the Golden Elixir

The thin red clouds in the sky kept changing, revealing patches of clear blue sky. The scorching sunlight poured down, bathing the endless sands and casting a golden glow.
Ye Feng stood atop a giant rock hundreds of meters high, taking in everything around him. The boundless desert resembled a sea of gold, stretching as far as the eye could see.
As the sun gradually set, its rays touched the edge of the desert, coloring the endless golden sands with a dark red hue. The desert waves, supporting the setting sun, stood still; the wind was calm, and the vast desert seemed like a sleeping ocean…
There was no sound of wind, no chirping of birds or insects—only sand, endless sand. The desert was utterly silent!
Ye Feng slowly closed his eyes. This was the ideal first stop he had envisioned—a place of complete silence where he would be free from any disturbance.
Under his control, the milky-white vital energy within him began to circulate rapidly according to the meridian diagrams in the “Wu Dian.” Yet with his eyes closed, he could see nothing outside. A “wooming” sound came from afar, like the growl of a fierce beast; a violent gust of wind suddenly raised towering sandstorms, sweeping across everything in its path. It was as if a calm sea suddenly became stormy, with waves rising one after another. The weather changed rapidly, and the world seemed to transform! The deafening wind grew louder and faster, turning the entire desert into a sea of sand and dust. The harsh cold wind mixed with the sand, turning the sky a dull yellow.
Yet Ye Feng, at the center of the storm, was unaffected at all. A massive vortex formed around him, enclosing him tightly.
This vortex, reaching from sky to earth like a pillar holding up the heavens, isolated all external disturbances. If anyone aware of such things had seen this scene, they would surely realize that it was this giant vortex causing the chaos outside.
Ye Feng was fully immersed in his cultivation. After dozens of cycles of the vital energy over two hours, its circulation finally accelerated again, reaching one cycle per hour.
He still did not stop. He felt as though an endless stream of energy was flowing into him, just like the barren desert beneath his feet, never satisfied for water.

He kept circulating the vital energy within his body over and over again, as if addicted to it. He had no idea how many cycles had passed, but eventually, the flow of the vital energy accelerated once more, reaching one cycle every half hour.
Seeing the speed of the vital energy increase, Ye Feng felt a hint of excitement. He sent a thread of mental energy toward his dantian.
The liquid core, which had originally been the size of a soybean, was now the size of a thumb and continued to grow at a visibly rapid pace.
Retiring his mental energy, Ye Feng focused again, dedicating all his attention to the circulation of energy and urging the vital energy to keep moving.
It was unclear how much time had passed, but the massive wind vortex connecting heaven and earth gradually dissipated under a burst of golden light.
The violent sandstorms, like an angry sea, ceased swirling after countless days and nights and finally calmed down.
With a clear gaze, Ye Feng looked up at the sky. Dust covered the sky in a earthy yellow hue. In the western part where heaven met earth, the sun, which had spent the day releasing its energy, had already hidden half of itself below the horizon.
“Another dusk!” Ye Feng’s lips curled slightly. He stretched out his right hand. “Let it rain—let’s not let this blue sky be covered in dust…”
As soon as he spoke, heavy rain began to fall, instantly enveloping the entire desert in clarity. The sky became much cleaner, and the originally golden desert turned a bright red.
Ye Feng did not stop the rain from falling on him. He was instantly drenched, but he stretched out his arms, enjoying this unprecedented sensation.
When the dull yellow from the sky disappeared completely, the rain stopped abruptly. If it weren’t for the red desert and the wet Ye Feng, no one would have thought that it had just rained heavily.
Ye Feng channeled his vital energy, and the water on his body vanished instantly, drying his coat completely as well.
“I’ve finally reached the Golden Core stage. I wonder how many days it took?” As soon as this thought crossed his mind, a line of text appeared in the void: Remaining time: 901 days.
“In other words, it took a full ninety-nine days to break through to the Golden Core stage!” Ye Feng frowned slightly, looking at the golden sphere the size of a grain of rice in his dantian. He hadn’t expected it to take so long to reach this stage.

“I’ve reached the Golden Core stage; the content on page two of the ‘Wu Dian’ should change! If it remains the same diagram, I’ll have to wait until the Nascent Soul stage for any changes! That would be far too boring!” Ye Feng thought to himself as he sent his mental energy toward the ‘Wu Dian’ in his sea of consciousness.

“Combat Techniques Section: By ‘technique,’ it refers to methods of using skill to overcome clumsiness. By identifying the enemy’s weak points, reducing force, and leveraging external forces, one can achieve victory with inferior strength…”

Ye Feng read on intently. The various attack techniques described in this section captivated him completely, leaving him unable to tear his eyes away. While reading the content in his sea of consciousness, he also simulated the use of these techniques in his mind.

It took nearly ten minutes for him to read that page five or six times, ensuring he had memorized every word. Ye Feng thought, “Is this all there is in the Combat Techniques Section? Are there anything else?”

Just then, the content on the ‘Wu Dian’ changed.

“Movement Techniques Section: Instant Step. This set of movement techniques is a simplified version of another existing set and can be learned by ordinary cultivators. It can be used for short-distance movement, offering faster speed and greater range compared to regular movement techniques, and it can also be better combined with combat techniques for attacks…”

Ye Feng’s eyes gleamed with excitement. Previously, whether in battle or not, he had relied solely on his own footwork to move, which was not only laborious but also consumed a lot of spiritual energy. In battle, without the support of movement techniques, he was utterly helpless when fleeing, relying entirely on his instinct to anticipate danger and performing awkward dodges. This had always been a source of frustration for him.

Now that he had the chance to learn movement techniques, how could Ye Feng pass it up?

He read this set of techniques dozens of times, memorizing it perfectly before taking a deep breath. “It’s time to start a new round of improvement plans!”